One Last Look
by Goldenmoon
Summary: When Shiori is ready to go back to old times again, Juri decides she no longer needs a broken dream to live.
1. read this

There was actually someone who reviewed this story before the unfortunate accident of me wiping out this story from my account. ^^; While I don't have the name of the reviewer, I would just like to say that I appreciated the review and that I'm sorry I lost it. Please don't hate me. ;-; 

~ Goldenmoon


	2. One Last Look

One Last Look  
a short piece by Goldenmoon

Note: Because I have not seen all of the Utena series, this may not be completely accurate in the series as to how it is placed. Think of this as my ideal version of how Juri and Shiori should have been after the shattering of Juri's locket.

In the early evening, when the sun's color was beginning to turn brilliant crimson, a lone figure with a long shadow crossed the Otohori campus. Her movements were fluid and graceful yet authoritative, for she truly was the beautiful panther amidst the green fields. No one could mistaken the tight curls, the sharp emerald gaze, or the coral uniform. Arisugawa Juri was the only one who had the aura about her to inspire such intense fear and admiration, the only one who was born to have everyone else give way before her. Very few could honestly say they had blocked the path of Juri in the time she had been a member of the Student Council and for good reason. When challenged Arisugawa was a cunning, passionate opponent with speed only surpassed by Ruka and perhaps Touga. Her anger was frightening when channeled.   
  
One of those who hadn't given in to the intimidating sophomore followed within her glorious shadow silently, unable to approach the goddess-like beauty. Juri knew the presence behind her merely by the sound of the soft footfalls on the grass, but she didn't turn. She never turned, not anymore. Her eyes were set on a new future now, a path that she had only found after being broken beyond repair and having to live with it. To look back would mean to fall into old habits and dead dreams, and Arisugawa Juri never repeated herself to anyone...not even her own being. So her walk continued without hesitation and the person who remained behind her, drenched within her shadow, was never given acknowledgement.   
  
The mysterious stalker, petite girl with deep wine colored locks, stared at the confident frame before her with a mixture of sorrow, confusion, and anger. Here she was, back where Juri should have wanted her, willing to submit and apologize for all she had done...and for the past few weeks Juri had not -once- turned to look at her. In school Shiori never felt those cool green eyes on her like she had so many times in the past, and when she passed her old friend in the hall, all she received was a polite smile. Juri had not come to her at all since that last time she rejected her help. Shiori was left to ponder over whether or not Juri was obsessed over her anymore or even liked her....but Shiori knew that she had to. The dark eyed girl knew that Juri's weakness was the love Juri had for her. So why, why was she acting like this?   
  
As the sophomore Council Member approached her dorm she suddenly felt a shift in the routine and her brow furrowed softly. The footsteps were getting closer, their steps more rushed and urgent than usual. Juri could hear the soft breaths of her pursuer and nearly smell her familiar scent in the evening air. This never happened...Juri was always the one to approach. She surprised herself by feeling completely calm and accepting the fact that now she would have to face the one thing that had caged her for all of those years. Now, after time spent reflecting and piecing together a shattered hope, she really didn't fear the challenge. Juri knew as the presence closed in, threatening to suffocate and swallow her again, that she would have to face the past in a final duel for her future. The peaceful emotions within her felt strange because when it came to Shiori the fiery haired duelist had never felt this way. Perhaps Ruka's words had been placed to do more than just piss her off.   
  
_Don't worry. Don't worry, Juri._   
  
Perceptive green eyes settled on the slight form in front of her and found the person to be whom she expected. Slowly those jaden orbs rose to meet the garnet red that was once the stuff of dreams. When Juri locked onto those murky depths she tilted her head to the side for a moment. A smile twitched on the borders of her lips as her hand came to casually rest on her hip. "Good evening, Shiori-san." she said politely.   
  
"Juri...? That's all you have to say? Good evening?" Shiori asked, inspecting the emerald expanse Juri had so willingly opened up to her, "You know where I've been. You haven't come to me once? You never turn, Juri..."   
  
"You didn't want me to." Juri pointed out simply, watching Shiori move closer. She was waiting for her heart to ache or a hope to blossom, but nothing happened. Even as Shiori came to stand so close to her, Juri could feel nothing beyond the feelings for a friend that she had lost so long ago.   
  
"That's never stopped you before. Juri...I came because I-I..." Shiori licked her lips as she tilted her head up to look into the visage of the woman in coral. A soft blush stained her pale cheeks as she brought her hand up to touch one of those tight curls that were always so perfectly wound. As much as she hated it, Shiori was alone. Deserted. She needed Juri back...she needed to have that strength, that protection...that control. She was willing to give up to Juri, live in the pathetic delusions the other girl had about her, and have the security of a warm body in her bed. In some ways she felt bad for how she treated her friend of old, but above anything else she needed to feel the rush of importance that Juri gave her. Being Juri's weakness, being in her shadow was the best thing that had ever happened to her. If she had only realized it sooner, Shiori would have clung to Juri and taken her for all that she was worth. Jealousy and hatred born of earlier times had blinded her and she missed her first chance at claiming a hold on the beautiful woman in front of her. Now she was ready to claim that love that Juri harboured. Working up her determination for this apology, Shiori allowed a sob to escape her throat. "I wanted to say I'm sorry for all I've done to you. Since Ruka d-died...I realized how I felt. I treated you so badly-"   
  
"It's alright, Shiori. It's over. Don't worry." Juri said softly, a light smile coming over her features. Her face was kind and warm, a far cry from the chilled ice queen rumored to have an animalistic rage. Her fair hand came to take Shiori's in her own, bringing warmth back into the red head's chilled fingers.   
  
"You mean, you forgive me?" Shiori questioned, her eyes skeptical at first. She had thought that Juri was angry with her because she hadn't come after her, but now she was seeing that that wasn't the case. Never the less, Shiori had to feel pleased that things hadn't changed and that Juri would still love her the same no matter how much she abused her in the past.   
  
"Yes."   
  
A shy smile crossed Shiori's lips as she moved in closer, lightly touching her body to Juri's as she wrapped her arms about the other girl's waist. As she felt Juri's hands come to rest on her shoulders, the smile became a little wider. "Believe in miracles, that your wishes come true..." she whispered, "I love you, Juri-sempai..."   
  
The two hands that rested on Shiori's shoulders gently pushed the petite girl back a few steps and Juri shook her head softly. "I love you, but I do not believe in false miracles." she said, a frown now delicately crushing her previous smile, "You are my friend, nothing more."   
  
Silence passed between the two as Shiori stared at Juri in shock, her clasped hands shaking as she stood in disbelief. Juri...Juri had refused her? "How can this be?" she asked, a pleading look in her eyes.   
  
"I fell in love with a girl I knew long ago when I was innocent, just as innocent to the world as she. Everything I knew, everything I was fit with her. When I grew up, however, the girl remained a girl and I was forever separated from her for she had left me. When the girl came back to me one day, I thought that perhaps I could fit with her again. I still had faith in her miracles and I believed that she was the miracle I would fight for. Unfortunately she was no longer my match and I would never win her back. I claimed there were no miracles because I put my hope in a miracle that was not to be and I was imprisoned by it. I was no longer who I used to be. It took a true miracle to shatter my false hopes and dreams, leaving me to have faith in something pure and true. Don't ask me to go back, Shiori. I will not. The girl I loved is gone." Juri replied, feeling a great weight lifted from her as she spoke, as if these words truly set her free. The strength she missed for so long was returning to her veins as she watched Shiori tremble. She felt pity, but none of the ache she used to. The ache that had caused her so much pain was gone. She was acknowledging and realizing that she didn't love this Shiori. She loved a little girl from the past who was lost in the corruption of the cruelly innocent adolescent standing before her. God, she could finally see it...how long had it taken her? Juri felt like she was coming out of some kind of drug re-hab center, but she had to admit that it felt good to just say it. There was nothing left to hide.   
  
The girl standing across from her, on the other hand, was not doing so well. She felt depression and rage instead of anything remotely positive. "I can't believe you would reject me after all of this...why? Why, Juri?!" she exclaimed. She had been turned down by the one person who had always loved her. The one person who she thought would never turn her down no matter what. Juri was the safety net, the thing she'd come to only if everything else would fall through. In a way she expected loyalty, like one would find in a dog perhaps, and saw Juri accepting her with open arms. To be told that she wasn't pined for anymore was not what Shiori foresaw and she was not happy. She was miserable. Crushed by Ruka, defeated when holding Juri's strength, denied eternal happiness, and then to be rejected for the one person she hated, admired, spited and depended on...Shiori was at an all time low.   
  
Juri's eyes softened for a moment and she touched Shiori's cheek briefly, only to have her hand slapped away. She still felt bad for her, despite what had happened. Juri would never stop caring for her and didn't expect to. It would be unnatural.   
"I do not repeat myself, Shiori," she responded in a hauntingly quiet manner. Slowly passing the crying girl, Arisugawa Juri walked to the door way of her dorm under the fresh moonlight and wrapped her hand around the cool metal of the door knob. Turning once more with a look of sympathy in her eyes, Juri blew a kiss to the weeping Shiori's back. "Good-bye, Shiori-chan." she whispered. Juri faced the door and opened it quickly to disappear inside, leaving the sobbing girl to herself and taking comfort in her freedom.   
  
The sky above Shiori was as clear and cold as it always was as the slight girl stumbled away in her own world of misery, letting the darkness swallow her completely. Anything left of the shadow dweller that once followed Arisugawa Juri had faded out of existence. It was someone else's turn to be trapped in the world's shell. 


End file.
